STUFF

Day 119

Urrrgh! Feeling really rough. Bad sleep, bad dreams, chronically horrible fatigue, hormones making me tearful, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.

So not done much thinking or sorting things out, (or anything useful, actually).

Find my brain all constipated with stupid stuff, so am knitting and watching TV and putting things off.

The knitting is a bit of an eco-wheeze. Wanted to do some, as really bored when all I can do is sit. Checked out the price of wool in John Lewis, and (after spending a happy ten minutes cooing over all the colours) decided it would just have to wait until Steve was employed again. Too expensive.

Then - aha! remembered a jumper I have with paint all up one of the sleeves. To be fair, two years as an art student means all my clothes have paint on them, but this one isn't too bad. Spent too days unravelling it and rolling the un-painted wool into balls, which I am now knitting into a smaller jumper. How's that for re-cycling!

Can't actually knit though. Got a book from the library with some patterns in it, but I'm kind of guessing what some of the instructions mean.

When I was young I had a motto which was "Just because I haven't done something before, doesn't mean that I can't". I've learnt how to do many things by just having a go, and keeping going until I get it right. In this case, however, Mystic Meg will probably be foreseeing more unravelling of wool in my future.

As I said before, have constipated brain syndrome today. Here are a few of the things cluttering it up, which I want to let go of ........

Why do famous people on the telly applaud themselves when everyone else is? Are they simple-minded? Do they suppose we think they are applauding us? It really gets on my tits.

And on what planet do people think they can go out and buy lots of 'thinks' instead of 'things'? They don't, you say. Oh yeah? - well, how come they talk about having acquired or done 'somethink' then? (and I'm talking about you, Simon Cowell).

And if you haven't been near them or done anything remotely messy, why do the inside of windows need cleaning so often?

And why don't lipsalves work for longer than ten minutes? Unless you put on so much all your hair sticks to your lips in the wind, they don't do any good at all.

And - being a tenant I know about this - why do people hang curtains so that they cover the radiator, instead of stopping just above? Why do they think I want to pay to heat the garden through the window?

And why do Dyson make vacuum cleaners that you can't do the stairs with, and why on earth did my husband buy one when I sent him out to get a completely different one? (answer, blokes love complicated looking gadgets).

My dad was a gadget freak. He loved supposedly time-saving kitchen things from those bizarre mail-order catalogues, and any that he thought sufficiently road-tested, he would pass on to us. I had a little round, brown thing that only ground nuts. It took ages to clean and didn't get used an awful lot (no shit). I refused one of those terrifying mandolins for amputating ones fingers with, however, I'm not stupid.

He liked NASA approved garlic crushers (use a knife and some salt, dad), and egg separators (what's wrong with half the shell?), and spoons that held one cups worth of tea-leaves (and half a cup of tea dust), and it all required storage somewhere, and could never be found when you wanted it. On the other hand, he was easy to buy for at Xmas.

I miss my dad. Whenever I see something like an all-in-one, sheepskin-lined sleeping bag, with two legs, a TV remote control pocket, and built-in lap tray, I think of him.

And he would never have dreamt of saying 'somethink' or applauding himself. Tidy.